Before the Music Ends
by ThisAccountIsNowInactive354085
Summary: The Etoile Election is a distant memory rapidly fading as the girls move into University life. Hearts are starting to heal and unspoken loves are beginning to fade. Can one week at the Hanazona summer home change all that? It will if Shizuma can help it.
1. Scene 0

**Hey everyone! I'm back with more Stopani stuff! I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this but I felt bad for what happened with my other fic, so I'm going to use the last chapter of that to start a new story.**

**In-depth Summary: The Etoile election is a distant memory as the girls face life outside of Astraea Hill. Loves that were never acted on begin to crumble and fade, and lies that they told themselves begin to slip away. Shizuma's back to fuck with Miyuki's heart once again, and where does Nagisa's loyalty lie? Shion and Chikaru are together, but not everything's as it seems when two people both have something to hide from everyone but each other. Miyuki's finally met her fiancé, but when the cast reunites at a congratulatory dinner hosted by Shizuma at a private estate, it appears that she isn't the only one unhappy about the situation.**

**All the usual couples with some twists thrown in.**

**Disclaimer: Nothing's mine but the plot!**

**Before the Music Ends by xXLiStLesSXx**

**Scene 0, or Let's Travel Back for Just a Moment**

Outside of the dorms, a lone figure was leaning against an old weeping willow, staring out at the lake. She scoffed slightly. _This is cliché even for you, Tamao_, the bluenette told herself wryly, thinking about the poetic potential of the situation. _You know she'll never notice you, and even if she does it'll be as a comfort figure; you're not Shizuma._

"Ara, but maybe that's a good thing?"

Tamao started, whirling around to face the smiling Le Rim president. "I said that out loud?" she asked, then cursed herself for the stupidity of her words. Of course she said that out loud- unless the rumors about Chikaru were true…

Chikaru gave her a sympathetic smile and stepped closer so that she was leaning against the same tree as Tamao was. Tamao was suddenly hit by the subtle perfume of brown sugar and vanilla and something else. "Shizuma-sama is no saint, Tamao-chan," Chikaru said quietly, turning her head slightly so that she could look Tamao in the eyes. "None of us are perfect."

"But some of us are perfect for each other," Tamao said quietly. "Some of us can be as horrible and flawed as we like and there'll always be someone waiting to pick up the pieces. Shizuma-sama even has two of them- I don't even think she knows about Rokujou-san."

Chikaru's eyebrows raised just slightly. "Miyuki-san?" she asked in a contemplative tone. "So you knew about that too." She smiled slightly. "Even Shion-chan noticed that, though. She pretends to be so strong, but Miyuki-san simply isn't a strong person. She tries to cover it up…"

"But she's not Shizuma-sama either," Tamao murmured, staring down at her feet. "She can't encase her heart in ice. Rokujou-sama wears her heart on her sleeve, free to be broken again and again. Trying to cover up her weakness is like hiding in the corner of a well lit room and hoping no one sees you." She sighed, slumping back against the tree.

"Perhaps," Chikaru began, gazing at Tamao with the same contemplative look, "Nagisa-chan isn't the right one for _you_."

Tamao frowned and glanced up as if to question the statement, but Chikaru only smiled enigmatically and stepped forward, embracing her in a brief but unrushed hug before leaving towards the dormitories.

Tamao stood there for another few seconds, confused by the warmth in her face and the tingling in her arms. It had never been there with Nagisa- surely it wasn't supposed to be there when it felt so strange and out of place.

"You found her?"

Chikaru smiled sadly at the blonde who gazed up at her blankly, dwarfed by the immense office chair that she sat in. She nodded. "She reminds me of someone else we both know," she said quietly.

Shion scoffed. "And just like Miyuki, she'll let it tear her apart before she realizes there's someone better out there for her," she finished for Chikaru, her violet gaze fluttering to the ground. "Who's going to stand up to me when she's mourning after that baka-hentai of an Etoile? It's not like Shizuma'll ever realize what she has- she's proven that twice now."

A sly smile lit up Chikaru's features as she took a small step towards the Spican. "And what does she have, Toumori-_sama_?"

Shion's expression didn't waver from the stubborn pout, but her cheeks lit up like the fourth of July. Clearing her throat hastily, Shion leaned back, attempting to regain her cool. "Well, it's not like I'm completely stupid," she said gruffly. "Even I can see how much potential Rokujou-san has, and how much better of a girlfriend she's be then that spacey new girl. I don't think she even knows what love is."

"And do you, Shion-koi?"

The tone in Chikaru's voice made Shion stiffen, and the blonde president's back straightened immediately. "Chikaru…"

"Shh," Chikaru said, instantly closing the distance between the two and pressing a finger to Shion's lips, her eyes twinkling. "It's alright, Shion," she said softly. "I think at this point, we can try and try to make things work, but in reality, all we're doing is making things easier on ourselves, fitting into the mold so we don't have to deal with love triangles and heartbreak. We complete each other, Shion- but not as lovers, hmm?"

With a great exhale through her nose, Shion nodded slowly, her frown softening into one of acceptance. "It was simple," she stated softly. "Watching all of the rest out there, fighting their feelings and getting their hearts trampled…and there we were, unattached for whatever reason, with no one to moon after us; no one's heart to break."

"No one's but our own," Chikaru agreed, brushing back a strand of blonde hair from Shion's face. "But that's no way to live, is it? I think we've been hiding our hearts away for long enough- especially you, koi."

Shion's jaw tightened and she spun in her chair so the back was facing Chikaru, who was at this point sitting on the large oak desk, one creamy leg folded over the other. "What are you talking about?" the blonde finally asked harshly. "If anyone's got to worry about hiding their heart it's you, Chikaru- your heart's big enough for four of us ordinary people."

"Just because you choose to hide behind your argumentative nature doesn't make it any different from my hiding behind my caring one," Chikaru said gently, in that same frank tone. "I know your secret, Shion- I've known it for a while now. You might think you're hiding from the world, but if someone really wanted to see past the cover, all they'd have to do is look."

"Shut up."

The response was brief and cutting, like a knife, but Chikaru didn't even flinch. "Hiding from others is one thing," she said, "but it's impossible to hide from yourself. Even if you shove me away and choose to ignore my words, Shion, they'll still be the only thing on your mind." Hopping off the desk, Chikaru tapped a finger to Shion's forehead. "As much as you don't want to believe it, koi, the heart is stronger than the mind. And your heart wants- needs- what your mind is telling you that you can't have. Which will you listen to, I wonder?"

"What do you mean you're holding a celebration?"

A soft chuckle came from the other end of the line. _"I'm your best friend, Mi-yu-ki- I only want you to be happy. Is that so wrong?"_

Miyuki's jaw trembled, but she hesitated for only a moment to make sure her voice wouldn't waver. "You left the school in pieces when you left, Shizuma, and now that everyone's just started putting themselves back together…"

_"Peace is boring, Miyuki- I doubt everyone's as together as they want the world to believe. Besides, I miss my Nagisa-chan."_

The words stung more than she'd ever admit, but Miyuki forced herself to remain strong. "Nagisa doesn't appear to miss you, though," she said, taking a leaf from Shizuma's book and sneering through her words. "How does it feel to be on the other side for once, Shizuma? How does it feel to be the one with the broken heart?"

A pause on the other end signified that her words had struck their mark, but Shizuma replied with a steady voice. _"I wouldn't know- you'll have to ask that pathetic Suzumi-san after I leave the school after staying for just one week. Nagisa will fall right back into my arms, where she belongs."_

Something in Miyuki twisted at Shizuma's patronizing tone. She'd never been particularly close to Nagisa, but the girl was obviously innocent and easily manipulated- she didn't deserve having to be another notch in Shizuma's bedpost. _Like you. _"You left her, Shizuma. You don't have the right."

But the blaring dial tone told her Shizuma was already too far gone.

She sighed, hanging up the phone and sinking back into the sofa of the luxurious mansion her fiancé had inherited. Funny- she'd think she'd be happy with the way things turned out, or at least mildly satisfied. Despite what she said, without Shizuma, Miyuki was nothing but a hollow shell of a girl who wordlessly allowed her parents to engage her to a man she didn't know- a man who spent his days with a bottle and his nights with his wordless wife. She didn't dare contradict him- she'd learned that the hard way.

Still, she didn't have room to complain. Overall, they left each other alone, and she got a large house and an undying source of money for whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, right at her fingertips. So what gave her the right to feel so empty?

She missed Miator- she missed the hill. She missed Chikaru, the only one she'd ever told her deepest secret to- she even missed Nagisa, even though the woman she loved fell for her. That wasn't Nagisa's fault. Miyuki missed having to deal with Kaname and that little tart Momomi. She didn't miss Shizuma- she loved the girl, but she didn't miss the pain that came with that. The pain was duller here.

And Miyuki missed _Shion_- she wouldn't even try to deny it anymore. Shion, who'd played her foil in every attempt she'd made for a better life at Miator and Astraea Hill. Shion, who was always so stubborn, but secretly kind-hearted and chivalrous to a fault, never wavering in her moral values.

Shion, the only one who'd ever seen Miyuki cry.

Shizuma didn't count- Shizuma never counted anymore. And those tears were meaningless- those tears were fickle, fearful tears that came from being transferred to a new place where she wasn't caged.

It had been so stupid; Shizuma hadn't shown up _again_, and Shion was yelling at _her _for it _again_, and Chikaru had claimed sickness and left the room. And Miyuki didn't know exactly how it happened, but she'd ended up on the floor, arms drawn around her knees, positively _sobbing _because one could only be abandoned so many times by the girl she loved for a one-night-stand before one broke down.

It made Miyuki crack a small smile for the first time in months when she thought of Shion's reaction- the blonde had instantly stopped ranting and had become extremely flustered, kneeling beside Miyuki, chattering non-stop about how she hadn't _meant _anything by it… Finally Miyuki had stopped crying long enough to look up and see the distressed look on the Spican's face and had managed to laugh a little bit before standing up and assuring her that it wasn't her fault. Shion, of course, had refused to accept that answer, and had insisted on seeing Miyuki to her dormitory to make sure she was okay.

Miyuki shook her head- why she was remembering Shion of all people, she didn't know. Someone so cold and so stubborn, just like Shizuma…but not. Shizuma didn't care about people's feelings- Shizuma broke Miyuki's heart and went back to stomp on it with her expensive, brand-name heels. Shion was…Shion wasn't as tough as she liked people to think. Shion _cared_, but didn't want people to know it. Shion was a kitten who fancied itself a tiger. Shizuma was selfish, and pretended to care just long enough to get what she wanted.

Shizuma was a viper.

Miyuki rolled her eyes at herself and got up to pour herself a glass of wine before she went to bed.


	2. Scene I

**Here's chapter one! I hope you all like this story and PLEASE review if you do! You have no idea how much your feedback means to us writers (unless, of course, you too are a writer).**

**All the usual couples with some twists thrown in.**

**Disclaimer: Nothing's mine but the plot!**

**Before the Music Ends by xXLiStLesSXx**

**Scene 1, or It Starts Like This**

Nanto Yaya was leaning back in a plastic chair, her feet resting on the top of the table in a decidedly unladylike position as she messed with her iPhone. After being socially isolated at Astraea Hill for very nearly her entire life, she'd gone out and bought the best and most recent of anything and everything that the world had to offer. And to be free of those _uniforms_! She smirked slightly, remembering the positively scandalized look she'd gotten from a certain pinkette the day she returned after a shopping trip in a pair of Vans and a slip-shoulder top that showed more skin than it hid.

_"Yaya-_senpai_!"_

Her smirk faltered as the memory entered her head- had it really been so long since she'd last seen Tsubomi? Three, maybe four months, she decided. It wasn't so long, after all- she shouldn't even miss the little brat with Hikari sharing a room with her once again. Speaking of which…

"Sorry I'm late, Yaya-chan!"

Yaya grinned brightly up at the flustered blonde who had just clattered down beside her, looking utterly exhausted. It was already so far into the semester, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that Hikari wasn't the 'college type'. "Another 'study session' with Amane-senpai?" she asked smartly, her grin widening when Hikari shot her a scathing glare that came in _just _above Tsubomi's death glare at a negative two on the threatening scale.

_Damn it, stop thinking about the little brat!_

Flushing crimson, Hikari stabbed at her salad with a plastic fork. "We were studying, Yaya-chan, and I don't call her that anymore!"

"Not in public, anyway," Yaya said, smirking before adopting a flushed, innocent expression. "Oh, not there, Amane-_senpai_- that's dirty…"

Hikari blushed so deeply that Yaya was momentarily worried that she might just explode. "You're incorrigible," she muttered under her breath. Yaya simply smirked and glanced back down at her phone, before mentally smacking herself and forcing herself to look away. Tsubomi had skipped over her final year at Astraea Hill and begun school at a university on the other side of Tokyo. It had been, in the end, Yaya's constant teasing and not-so-subtle innuendo that had persuaded Tsubomi to get a cellphone. Hikari had glared at her then as if to say 'Really? Can't you just tell her you want to keep in touch?' But of course she couldn't have. Silly Hikari.

So Tsubomi had left Astraea Hill with a headful of dreams and images of greasy young boys who preyed on young, innocent loli-type girls at all times of the day.

Her phone vibrated in her hand and she jumped, instantly opening the message before checking the sender's id, and was therefore struck with a wave of utmost, unwarranted disappointment when she recognized Shizuma's brash style.

"Shizuma's having a get-together at one of her many estates," she said aloud for Hikari, who had a tendency to lose her phone every other day. "Doesn't say why, though, just that we should meet in front of Astraea Hill, and that she'd arrange transportation from there." Inside, she was grinning uncontrollably- screw the denial, anyway. She missed the little blushing tsundere- Hikari wasn't nearly as fun to tease for some reason. She assumed it was because Hikari didn't lash out like Tsubomi always did. When she voiced this opinion, however, Hikari only shook her head.

"Honestly, Yaya-chan," she sighed. She wondered if Yaya really didn't notice anything different- if she honestly didn't realize that she was completely devoted to one girl, and this time, it wasn't Hikari. Yaya hadn't been in a relationship at all since they left Astraea Hill- not even for a one-night stand. Hikari could only hope that Yaya saw what she did before it was too late.

**PGBR**

Tomouri Shion was resting her head against the soft chest of her semi-fake girlfriend with benefits. But, since that was an awfully long and complicated thing to say, she usually just went with 'Chikaru'.

Who, at the moment, was running her fingers through the silky blonde locks in the way that made Shion positively purr. "Did you get the message?" Chikaru asked in her soft, gentle voice.

Shion grunted in acknowledgement, her good mood broken. "Do we have to go?" she half-whined. "She didn't even tell us what it was for."

"Hmm," Chikaru hummed in agreement, and Shion sighed, knowing it was a lost cause. "I think it would benefit us both to go, Shion-koi," she murmured. "We can't fake this relationship forever. You can't run from your feelings any more than you could fight them, and if you never confront them, you may never move on."

Shion stiffened and reflexively pulled away from the sweet-faced girl, her mind swirling with unbidden thoughts.

_"Such a pretty face_," she remembered her mother saying on Family Day in her second year. _"Pity she always looks so miserable." _And Shion had scoffed, but silently agreed, and from that moment on had made it her mission to never let that girl smile, because God knew who would make the same observation that her mother had. But, she thought, she didn't want her to cry, either. That was awful, and it had felt like her heart was separated from her chest, like she'd do anything to get that girl to smile.

"Everyone can run," she finally grunted in response to Chikaru's 'innocent' question. She knew the girl well enough now to know that nothing Chikaru said was ever truly innocent, and some of the things she did say made Shion pity the fool who got on Chikaru's bad side. "And 'm not."

She didn't look up at Chikaru, knowing that the former Le Rim president would be gazing at her with that knowing smile. "Then you're hiding, koi," she murmured. "What happened to the Shion I used to know? You were such a lion back then but now…you're nothing but a lamb."

It was a jibe to get a reaction out of her, but Shion brushed it off. "I've always been a coward, Chikaru," she said bluntly, "and you always knew it."

She heard Chikaru sigh and stand behind her and felt the girl pull her to her feet as well. "Very well, love," she said, brushing a stray blonde wisp out of Shion's violet eyes, "be as cowardly as you like." She leaned forward and pecked Shion's nose. "After we meet the others at the Hill."

Shion groaned, but didn't protest- she'd seen it coming a mile away, after all.

**PGBR**

A bluenette and a pinkette sat together on a long, mildly uncomfortable dormitory bed. They were an unlikely couple in that they weren't- their situations were startlingly similar, although they approached them completely different ways. Tamao had always preferred to be open about her love, knowing that Nagisa was dense enough to mistake it for something else. Tsubomi, while knowing the above was true for Yaya as well, had never been able to bring herself to show her love, because for her that made it all too real. She knew she loved the older girl, but chose to ignore it as much as possible, hoping it would heal the pain.

It didn't, and she'd tried her damndest to move on.

She still talked to Yaya, of course, over text messaging, that was- she hadn't heard the slightly husky, teasing voice in over four months. But she never once mentioned the multitude of dates she'd been set up on, and the boys that Yaya warned her about as well as other boys that she suspected would be perfectly lovely, if she only had the heart to pretend to love them. Like them, even. She knew she'd gained a reputation as a prude through her vast, yet innocent history. She knew she was called a slut as well, and wondered just how the two managed to coexist in the same rumor mill.

Tamao, on the other hand, had not attempted to move on at all. She preferred to bury herself in her studies, and talk only to Tsubomi and her roommate when absolutely necessary. The only other person was Chikaru, who she'd struck up a surprising bond with on the night of the Etoile election. Chikaru was beautiful, kind, and attentive- Tamao could easily see herself falling for her, which made it imperative that she didn't. Luckily, Chikaru had Shion, and Tamao had her devotion to Nagisa, and everything was fine in the land of Lesbian Drama and Gaynst for the time being.

That is, until, she got the text message that sent her to where she was now, across from Tsubomi on the younger girl's bed while her obnoxious roommate drank herself to death and whored herself for tequila shots.

"Are you going?"

Tamao surprised herself by speaking first, but looking at the pinkette, she had found it hard not to. It was obvious that whatever Tamao felt about the reunion, Tsubomi felt it ten times more. Having put her feelings on the backburner for so long instead of learning to live with them, this trip would be a rollercoaster for the younger girl. But there was Hideo-kun, Tsubomi's most recent and longest boyfriend to date, and she knew that if Tsubomi were to go, the pink phone clutched in the girl's hand would never leave her sight.

"I don't know," Tsubomi said quietly, and Tamao fought the urge to tell her to go anyway. Unlike Tamao's feelings for Nagisa, Tsubomi's feelings were at least partially returned- Tamao had seen the way Yaya had grown to be protective and borderline flirtations with the pinkette. She wondered how Yaya would react to Hideo, and, after a moment, decided that if Tsubomi didn't mention him, she would. It was the least the pinkette deserved. "I don't know if I can see her…not after she's been living with Hikari for so long."

"I'm going," Tamao said, thrusting herself onto the rollercoaster without a safety bar. "If I can see them together, maybe you could too."

Them, her- it was all understood between the two girls.

Tsubomi nodded slowly. "Okay, then," she said. "How long do we have."

"A couple days to pack, according to Shizuma," Tamao replied. "We'll be gone for a week at her estate for some reason. I think she's probably going to try and be dramatic and reveal it all at once when we get to the Hill."

"Probably," Tsubomi said quietly, and Tamao realized that she was, at this point, talking to herself.

**PGBR**

Miyuki leaned against the wrought iron fence separating the dream-world of Astraea Hill from Tokyo, Japan, her head back, reveling in the feeling of the breeze against her face, rubbing away all traces of five-o'clock shadow from her…fiancé's chaste kiss. He would meet them at the estate, he said. She didn't know how long she had, but allowed the tension to seep out of her body like it was the day's filth in a steaming shower. It felt lovely, the freedom.

And then a long, black limousine pulled up, one window rolled down to reveal a mischievous face she knew all too well, and she sighed, pushing away from the fence and into the free fall that she thought she'd escaped more than three years ago.


End file.
